Editorial Mopre on the ruble

From The Gold Monitor , published by M. Murenbeeld & Associates of Victoria, B.C.

But even if the ruble was backed by gold, would we in the West hold it? I doubt it. Not only is history full of central banks reneging on their gold convertibility promises (i.e., the U.S. in 1971), there is also no particular reason (I am looking at some family-owned 1894 Russian railroad bonds that are framed and hanging in my office) to trust the Russian monetary authorities — either this group, or the next group, or the next group, etc. Most important, Russia has little to offer a ruble-holder in the West other than the gold supporting it.